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Photos:Photos: Drug scandals in sports

Drug scandals in sports – New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez was suspended in August 2013 after he was accused of having ties to Biogenesis, a now-defunct anti-aging clinic, and taking performance-enhancing drugs. The suspension covers 211 regular-season games through the 2014 season. Rodriguez denied the accusations and said he intends to appeal. Twelve other Major League Baseball players received 50-game suspensions without pay in the Biogenesis probe, and In July, Milwaukee Brewers star outfielder Ryan Braun was suspended for the rest of the season for violating the league's drug policy.

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Photos:Photos: Drug scandals in sports

Drug scandals in sports – Lance Armstong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles and banned from professional cycling in October 2012 after being accused of using performance-enhancing drugs. Armstrong confessed in January 2013 to doping during his cycling career.

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Photos:Photos: Drug scandals in sports

Drug scandals in sports – Barry Bonds is baseball's all-time home run leader, but some commentators say there should be an asterisk by his record. Though he's said he never knowingly used steroids, two San Francisco reporters wrote a book alleging he used performance-enhancing drugs. He was indicted on charges of perjury and obstructing justice for allegedly lying to a grand jury investigating steroids, and convicted of obstruction of justice.

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Drug scandals in sports – Lyle Alzado was known as one of the most vicious lineman to ever play the game, and he chalked up more than 100 sacks and almost 1,000 tackles. Before his death from brain cancer at age 43, he told Sports Illustrated he began using steroids in 1969 and that, "On some teams between 75 and 90% of all athletes use steroids."

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Drug scandals in sports – Known as "Rocket" for his aggressive pitching style, Roger Clemens played pro ball for more than two decades, racking up seven Cy Youngs. He left Major League Baseball under a cloud of steroid allegations, despite a court finding him not guilty of perjury when he told Congress he never used the drugs.

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Drug scandals in sports – At 6-foot-5 and 260 pounds, Alistair Overeem is known for putting mixed martial arts star Brock Lesnar into early retirement. Ahead of a heavyweight title match against UFC champion Junior dos Santos in May, Overeem tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone and was yanked from the card.

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Drug scandals in sports – An early and chief accuser of Armstrong, Floyd Landis was himself stripped of his 2006 Tour de France title after testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs. He admitted doping in 2010, the same year he accused many other riders of doping as well.

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Drug scandals in sports – As the most decorated Olympian ever, with 22 medals, Michael Phelps is known as a fish in human's clothing, but for a brief period in 2009, after a photo of him smoking a bong was made public, he also was known as a pothead. Despite losing sponsors, he quickly became known for swimming again, securing six medals in the 2012 Games.

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Drug scandals in sports – Marion Jones was a world champion track and field athlete who won several titles in the 1990s and five medals during the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia. After admitting in 2007 that she had taken performance-enhancing drugs, she was stripped of the gold medals and other honors won after the 2000 Games.

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Drug scandals in sports – Known as "Lights Out" after knocking out four players in a high school game, Shawne Merriman entered the NFL with fanfare, earning 2005 Rookie of the Year honors. His 2006 suspension for steroid use prompted the "Merriman Rule," prohibiting any player who tests positive for steroids from going to the Pro Bowl that year.

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Drug scandals in sports – After his former Texas Rangers teammate Jose Canseco accused him of using steroids, Rafael Palmeiro appeared before Congress to deny the allegations. Later that year, he was suspended from baseball for testing positive for steroids. He maintains to this day he has never knowingly taken performance enhancers.

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Drug scandals in sports – Few NBA players have tested positive for steroids, not only because the sport relies less on raw strength and speed than other sports but also because the league didn't begin testing until 1999. Miami Heat forward Don MacLean became the first to fail a test in 2000, and he was suspended for five games.

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Drug scandals in sports – After racking up awards in college football, Ricky Williams was picked in the first round of the pro football draft in 1999. After testing positive for marijuana in 2004 as a Miami Dolphin, Williams retired and studied holistic medicine in California. He returned to the Dolphins the following year, only to have more run-ins with the NFL drug policy. He retired again in 2011.

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Drug scandals in sports – Bill Romanowski was known for hard hits on the gridiron, but he also violently attacked teammate Marcus Williams during a scrimmage while playing for the Oakland Raiders. In a lawsuit, Williams blamed the attack on Romanowski's "roid rage." Romanowski settled the suit and in 2005 admitted to "60 Minutes" that he used steroids.

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Drug scandals in sports – Sprinter Tim Montgomery set the world record in the 100-meter dash in 2002, but the time was scratched after he was found to have used performance-enhancing drugs. Since his retirement, he has had other legal troubles including arrests for money laundering and heroin offenses. He was sentenced to jail time for both.

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Drug scandals in sports – An Olympian and renowned longball hitter, Mark McGwire spent his entire career with the Oakland A's and St. Louis Cardinals, breaking the single-season home run record in 1998. In 2010, he admitted using steroids over the course of a decade but told Bob Costas in an interview he took them only for health reasons.

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Drug scandals in sports – Ross Rebagliati won a gold medal during the first year of snowboarding at the 1988 Olympics. He was stripped of the medal after testing positive for the active ingredient in marijuana. It became fodder for late-night talk show jokes, but Rebagliati eventually got his medal back after it was determined marijuana was not a banned substance.

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Drug scandals in sports – A winner of eight Grand Slam events, Andre Agassi was considered one of the most dominant tennis players of the 1990s. In 2009, the tennis pro acknowledged in his autobiography that he had failed a drug test for methamphetamine in 1997 but skirted punishment by blaming an assistant.

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Drug scandals in sports – Regarded as the best soccer player after Pele, Diego Maradona was known for his deft footwork and knack for finding the net. In 1991, he was suspended for 15 months after testing positive for cocaine. He would later admit he was addicted to the drug for about 20 years and began using when he was playing for Barcelona in the 1980s.

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Drug scandals in sports – A prolific sprinter in the 1980s, Canadian Ben Johnson routinely bested American Carl Lewis in the 100-meter dash. After winning the gold at Seoul in 1988, Johnson tested positive for a steroid. His coach said Johnson took the drugs to keep up with other athletes and later wrote a book saying all top athletes were using in those days.

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Story highlights

New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez is appealing a 211-game suspension

He is accused of taking performance-enhancing drugs

Attorney says Rodriguez was one of many athletes who consulted for Biogenesis

New York Yankees star Alex Rodriguez had a "consulting relationship" with a Florida anti-aging clinic accused of providing banned drugs to baseball players, but there's no evidence he did anything to violate baseball's Joint Drug Agreement, one of his attorneys told CNN Monday.

Rodriguez is appealing a 211-game suspension that Major League Baseball levied against him this month, with the league accusing him of taking performance-enhancing drugs and having ties to the now-shuttered Biogenesis clinic.

Attorney Joe Tacopina said Rodriguez was one of many athletes who consulted for Biogenesis.

"Clearly there was a relationship -- a consulting relationship," Tacopina said. "I mean, Biogenesis, that lab has consulted with many professional athletes. Not every single one of those athletes has been accused of or found guilty of using illegal substances."

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Tacopina declined to give further details about the relationship, citing confidentiality concerns. But he said, "They have no scientific evidence to prove that Alex Rodriguez did anything to violate" baseball's drug agreement.

"It's witness testimony from one witness -- a witness who's not going to be available, in my prediction, to either testify in arbitration or at some federal proceeding," he said.

"If I utter those words, I've just violated the confidentiality clause of the JDA -- that's the bottom line," he said. "... If you're a supporter or a detractor, what happened to him is not fair by anyone's standards. It's clearly a vendetta, it's clearly a witch hunt to get him 211 games -- not justifiable under anyone's scenario that is being objective."

Apparently in response to comments like these, Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball's executive vice president of economics and league affairs, sent Tacopina a letter on Monday, offering to waive confidentiality provisions.

"While we believe that your public comments are already in breach of the confidentiality provisions of Major League Baseball's Joint Drug Prevention and Treatment Program (the "Program"), we will agree to waive those provisions as they apply to both Rodriguez and the Office of Commissioner of Baseball with respect to Rodriguez's entire history under the Program, including, but not limited to, his testing history, test results, violations of the Program, and all information and evidence relating to Rodriguez's treatment by Anthony Bosch, Anthony Galea and Victor Conte," he wrote.